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JLIBRARY OF CONGRESS. I 




UNITED STATES OP AMERICA.! 



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A FEW" 

REPUBLICAN THOUGHTS 

FOR 1880. 
MR. J. W. FORNEY AT WEST CHESTER, PA. 

SATURDAY EV'NG, NOV. 1, 1879. 



There is a beautiful stanza in an anonymous poem which my 
gifted friend Forrest used sadly to repeat after he had fallen into 
the sere and yellow leaf, that I am often reminded of when I visit 
any of the familiar places in my native State, so dear to me as 
"West Chester, Reading, and Lancaster. I can almost hear the 
resounding voice of my dead friend as I recall these exquisite lines : 

" I came, but they liad passed away, 
The fair in form, the pure in mind, 
And like a stricken deer I stray 

Where most are strange tho' all are kind." 

And then referring to those who have passed away, he said that 

" They were the loveliest of their race, 
Whose grassy tombs my sorrows steep. 
Whose worth my soul delights to trace. 
Whose very loss 'tis sweet to weep." 

But if hundreds have gone, many of their contemporaries re- 
main to reap the great harvest which they sowed, and enjoy the 



blessings of our rescued liberties. As I stand here to-night, Mr 
President, the men of other days, in this vicinage,'pass me by in 
long and almost articulate procession ; and as I see before me, either 
personally or with the eye of the mind, those they have left behind 
I am profoundly interested, and, I may add, unspeakably encour- 
aged. And what strengthens this sentiment is the fact that the 
same experience is taught in hundreds of other towns, and in almost 
every liousehold between the two oceans. In some it is a memory 
full of comfort and consolation ; and this is true of all the 
North and all the West. In others it is a remorse and a retribu- 
tion; and this is true of nearly all the South. West Chester is 
only one panel of a vast continental picture, the study of which 
gives you an ideal of one mighty whole, just as astronomers peruse 
the mysterious machinery of the firmament by the observations of 
a single star. I do not think I could do better than to show some 
of the incidents of the matchless experience which has revolu- 
tionized the sentiments and arrested the prejudices of millions of 
men, and more or less modified the judgments and commanded the 
respect of the civilized world. Belonging to the ma-ical work of 
the last quarter of a century this chapter of Republican adminis- 
tration in the United States may well be classified anioiii. the 
greatest achievements of modern times. 

Speaking as I am to-night, among the memories of a community 
which I always visit, almost as a second home, I feel that tha^e words 
of mme are intended for the greater struggle which begins when 
the present election ends. We shall vote next Tuesdav, November 
4th, 1879, but on the very next day we shall commence to prepare 
for the voting which is to take place exactlv one vear after Do 
those gentlemen who loudly advise that we shall keep 1880 out of 
this trial, do they think the people stupid enough to follow such 
counsel ? They do not keep it themselves. I have the highest re- 
gard for Mr. Butler, our Republican candidate for State Treasurer 
and have rea.son to honor him for his honesty and manliness, and 
for all the gentlemen on the Republican ticket; but the real candi- 
date now before us is the Republican candidate for President of the 
United States, to be elected in November of 1880. All that re- 
mains is to give him a name. VnUkv our Democratic friends, we 
have no trouble about cither „ur men for high olHce or our mea«- 



ures. They are at war not only about their leader next year, but 
about then- policy. Never was there such a quarrelsome house- 
hold. They do not even agree in harmonious hatred of the Repub- 
licans ; while it must be said that they do agree in fighting each 
other. In Philadelphia the flictions have been quarrelling with 
such industrious reciprocity as to recall the typical legend of the 
Kilkenny cats, that tore away, each at the other, till there was 
nothing left but the tips of their tails. In Ohio they attempted to 
unite the oil of gold money with the water of paper inflation, and 
failed ignominiously. In California the Democratic dilettante made 
a bargain with the horny handed Communists under Kearney, and 
died among their own former worshippers. In Illinois they are 
ridiculed and rent in twain by their own leading newspaper, the 
Chicago Times. In Massachusetts, where they are generally beaten 
about forty thousand, they are running two Democratic candidates 
for Governor. In New York, the condition of the .Democracy has 
become very like that of the Communists in Paris while the Ger- 
mans were lying at Versailles preparatory to the capture of the great 
gay metropolis, happily illustrated by a remark of General Burn- 
side to Prince Bismarck, when the General called on the latter after 
he had escaped from the blazing Capital : " And how did you leave 
our friends in Paris, General?" was the first question of the giant 
German Chancellor. " I left tiiem, Prince, fighting among them- 
selves like a wild colony of angry monkeys in a menagerie." The 
figure applies with grim exactitude to New York, and will be crowned 
with an equally exact result. John Kelley, the lineal successor of 
William M. Tweed, claimed to be a more honest man, proves the 
satire of the compliment by rejecting the fair nomination of his 
own party, after having participated in the convention that made 
it, and in obedience to such a treason many of the reputable men 
of the party follow the lead of the despotic Pope of Tammany 
Hall, and, to gratify him, boldly bankrupt their party, and de- 
liberately prepare for the overthrow of themselves and their chief. 

I am naturally not a mourner at the opening grave of the Demo- 
cratic party, although I am glatl to say that I count many cherished 
friends in that organization ; very many in Philadelphia, in Lan- 
caster, and in this favored and famous old county — thousands whose 
patriotism I honor and whose respect I am proud to receive and 



reciprocate. But these Democratic divisions are tlie harvest of the 
bad seeds deliberately sown twenty yeavs ago. From the time that 
such men as Wilmer Worthington, Abraham R. Mcllvaine, Joseph 
J. Lewis, John Hickman, Townsend Haynes, George W. Pearce, 
Addison May, J. B. Evehart, Wayne McVeigh, Washington Town- 
send, Richard T. Downing, and Edward Darlington, in this great 
county, and thousands elsewhere, sunk all party ties and rallied 
against the attempt to establish slavery in Kansas, the Democrats 
who remained inside their organization have been made the victims 
of precisely such mistakes and transgressions as have now reached 
their climax in all the North, and West, and South. In October of 
1858 the people of Pennsylvania had the first chance to meet and 
punish the first of these outrages, and in this great district the bat- 
tle was exceedingly animated. A few figures will show how honest 
the people are when they are convinced that their public servants are 
unworthy of trust. In 1856 there were but nine Democrats elected 
to Congress from this State, all the rest, sixteen, being Whigs ; in 
1858 there were but three Democrats elected from out of twenty- 
five, all the remainder being men of the school of Thaddeus Stevens 
and John Hickman ; and in this district the combined vote of 
Fremont and Fillmore, in 1856, was 1008 against Buchanan, while 
in 1858 the combined vote against his Kansas policy was nearly 8000. 
John M. Read, Republican, was elected Judge of the Supreme Court 
by over 25,000. New Jersey, New York, Ohio, all New England, 
and all the West declared, with (^qual emphasis, the same way. 

The South was already solid Democratic in 1858, and the North 
was rapidly becoming solid Republican. But the reign of Demo- 
cratic blunders did not end with the terrible rebuke of that year. 
Cruel proscription followed the verdict of 1858, only to be avenged 
by more Republican victories; finally to culminate in the rebel- 
lion of 1861, tlic greatest wrong of all, to be followed, in turn, by 
the triumpli of the Union, Emancipation, the death of Lincoln, and 
the forgiveness and restoration of the South. 

And now, twenty-one yeai-s since 1858, we are brought to book 
by new Republican trials and duties, and by new Democratic 
mistakes and divisions, and, let me prophesy, in the front of the 
greatest and most conclusive Republican victory since Grant de- 
feated Lee in April of 1865. Here, in West Chester, — which, as 



I have shown, was tlie scene of the beginning- of one of the most 
complete revolutions in political history, in 1858, — I propose to 
show that we are now, in November, 1879, on the eve of another 
still more overwhelming revolution ; and, as I am not talking to 
one party, but to all reasonable men, I think the causes, as I shall 
submit them, will go far to hasten and to fasten the result. The 
record shows that our dear country has been saved from the folly, 
and saved frequently, by the Republican party, since that party 
was founded in 1856 ; and it is this fact, abundantly illustrated, 
and to-day deeply rooted in the popular heart, that accounts for the 
despair of the Democratic leaders. My object to-night is to suggest 
some food for thought in the long winter evenings now at hand, 
and to awaken a fresh sense of gratitude to our country and for 
those who have served it to the best of their ability. And to make 
that object clear, I shall print this short address for circulation 
among the people. Spoken at the close of a very tranquil political 
struggle, and in advance of a State Republican victory, — easily won 
because really deserved, — I am not carried away by passion or by 
party. Most of our political literature is prepared for the political 
market suddenly, in the heat of party strife, when men have as 
little capacity to write as to read clearly. My object is to make a 
little homely pamphlet that may be read without anger by the 
strongest Democrat in the hours when he has nothing better to do 
than to think about himself and his country. 

The very best witnesses of the value of Republican measures are 
to be found in old Democratic history and new Democratic con- 
cessions. TKe Republican party is a compound of all modern 
thought chastened by experience. It is not Whig, or Democratic, 
or Know-Nothing, or foreign, or Protestant, or anti-Mason, but it 
unites the best of all proved metliods of political science. Its ancient 
author is Thomas Jefferson, although it was only born out of all 
these named ingredients in 1856, at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. 
Above all things it is not sectional, because it really saved the whole 
Union. It is essentially a national party, a party of strong gov- 
ernment, and its best authorities are three : Jefferson, who purchased 
Louisiana in 1804 ; Jackson, who was ready to hang Calhoun in 
1830, the man who, in the name of States' Rights, had threatened 
to nullify a law of Congress; and Lincoln, who emancipated four 



millions of slaves in violation of the assumed doctrine of the Dem- 
ocratic party that slavery was protected by the Constitution and 
could be carried anywhere in defiance of local law. Such, in 
my opinion, is the foundation of tlie Republican party of the United 
States as illustrated by these three illustrious men. Jetferson, who 
found the authority for empire in the law of self-preservation ; 
Jackson, who found the authority for rebuking secession in the 
same supreme necessity ; and Lincoln, who found the reason for 
the emancipation of four millions of slaves in a still higher and 
holier self-preservation. 

Upon these three great pillars rest the chief Republican re- 
forms of the last twenty-one years. State sovereignty in the sense 
that justified the rebellion passed into the grave with rebellion, 
leaving behind that tremendous franchise, individual freedom 
and municipal independence, which is the only just doctrine in a 
community that, for the sake of a supreme national government, 
surrenders just enough of its own power to secure a faithful and 
cohesive central guardianship. On these great pillars, Jefferson, 
Jackson, and Lincoln, not only repose our surest guarantees, but 
from their example have sprung, like so many binding arches, the 
incalculable blessings won to our country and to mankind by the 
Republican party in the last quarter of a century. And among 
these I class the overthrow of the rebellion, the emancipation of 
the slaves, the homestead law, the Pacific Railroad, tiie reduction 
of the national debt, the national bank law, the freedom of Kansiis, 
the amnesty of the men who took arms against the flag, tiie protec- 
tive tariff, and the resumption of specie payments. 

Now, to not one of these measures, except amnesty, did the Demo- 
cratic party contribute anything but opposition ; jirompt, unpaus- 
ing, uncjualified, and bigoted opposition. These statutes or measures 
have not only enriched, strengthened, and saved our own country, 
but have attracted the admiration of other nations. They have modi- 
fied the legislation of mankind; they have affected the habits and 
changed ti)e productions of nations; have altered the course of trade; 
have made millions of foreigners dependent upon our productions; 
have, in one word, given the American i>eople the command of 
the future of the world's career. There they stand to-day, the 
proudest monument of republican progress in the whole record of 



modem civilization. Will you, my friends, studying this marvel- 
lous catalogue, as you enjoy the fruifc? of each successive measure, 
ftnd one instance in which the Democratic party has favored these 
unparalleled benefactions? Ytju might search till Gabriel's trum- 
pet sounded the Resurrection without success. 

And strange to say, that as the masses of the people see and 
enjoy these benefactions, and vote their sense of them in the elec- 
tions, the Democratic leaders refuse to admit that they are the proud 
stewardship of the Republicans. What a difference l^etween the 
Democratic leaders and the Democratic people! And this differ- 
ence shows, after all, the selfishness of these leaders and the hon- 
esty of the people. The one not only refuses to admit that the 
magnificent results of the last quarter of a century's development 
belong to Republican statesmanship alone, but at the same time 
dare not say that they would disturb these results if they ever ob- 
tain command of the administration of the General Government. 
How glorious the conduct of the people on the other hand ! They 
say these great acts of victory, peace, liberty, equality, forgiveness, 
prosperity, economy, protection, and development are the direct 
consequences of Republican bravery, statesmanship, invention, and 
skill, and as such vote to keep the Republican party in power. 

Such is the contrast between Democratic leadership and popular 
judgment in the United States. But this contrast produces some- 
thing more than Democratic defeats. It creates and crystallizes 
a pervading national gratitude. Every new proof of Republican 
wisdom and foresight makes a new title to popular thanksgiving. 
The joy over the triumph of our arms in time of war becomes a 
rapture as the causes of these triumphs are revived. As the har- 
vest of succeeding Republican legislation increases in value, men 
count over their own happiness and remember the authors of it. 
It has been said that republics are ungrateful, but time proves that 
the maxim is as false as the other — that republics are accidental and 
temporary. In the case of our own country, we might forget our 
benefactors if God Almighty would allow us. We might fall into 
the common insensibility to fiivors received and benefits enjoyed, 
because the favors were too many and the benefits too familiar, if 
other nations would permit it. God Almighty has sent to us the 
men who led our Israel out of her captivity, and masses of millions 



in other lands saw the mighty struggle, and wlien our Joshua came 
to them, they taught us, under God's eye and care, how to appre- 
ciate him. General Grant left Philadelphia for Liverpool, in thi 
steamship Indiana, on the 17th of May, 1877, and on the 22d of 
September, 1879, the great steamer Tokio landed him at San 
Francisco, an interval of two years and four months among foreign 
nations, the welcome guest of republics, monarchies, and despotisms, 
the wonder of all the varieties of the human race who had heard 
or read of his romantic career, and who greeted him, not with 
the honors extended to a royal personage, but as if this plain 
citizen had been sent on some celestial mission from the 
regions of the blest. What is the secret of this phenomenal event? 
Can you not answer me, men of AVest Chester ? On that tropical 
morning, May 17th, 1877, as General Grant took me by the hand 
to say " good-by," 1 pr()[)hesied : " You go forth to honors you 
cannot now realize, and, whether you desire it or not, you will be- 
co.ne the irresistible apostle of republican ideas to all the world." 
And when we met in Paris, in September of 1878, 1 reminded him 
of the words, and he remembered them. Himself entirely unique, 
— if to be unpretending, simple, and invincible in war, is to be 
unique, — he had an entirely unicpie experience as he sailed around 
the world. He builded better than he knew ^vdien he fought down 
slavery and fought up liberty. The whole world had become 
weary of blood and hungry for freedom. His war was for the 
peace of mankind, and mankind wished to take him to their 
hearts. The kings, reading in the eyes of the people the sig- 
nificant menace of the iuturc, anticipated the people in kingly 
tributes to the silent republican soldier. He spoke little, but his 
[)resence was the sonorous prologue of the swelling act of a 
sweeping revolution. lie Avoic no trapi)ings of state, displayed 
no ancestral esculclicoii, tr:i\rll(d with no train of menials or 
glittering stalf, but wlH'revcr he showed liinisi'lf, the halo ol' 
his renown, and the awful j)uissanc(' oC his country, t«^)uchcil 
all hearts, and made tor liiin a home, an Jionor, and a glory. We 
thought we knew him and loved him before he went forth; but 
when we saw the iiiyiiads of the Old World i)Ouring out to meet 
and greet him, wi' liegan to realize that even our gratitude, deep 
and sincere as it was. was not as profound as the unsellish admira- 



tiou of strangers. And thus we were taught afresh our duty and 
our obligation to the man who had done more for our country than 
any other citizen since the day of the Westmoreland farmer, the 
revolutionary leader, and first President, George Washington. 
No, men of West Chester ! republics are not ungrateful, and the 
Republic is not an accident nor a frenzy. 

I met General Grant in Europe in 1878 and witnessed his recep- 
tion by some of the crowned heads and by the Republicans of 
France; and you need not be told howl enjoyed the wondering 
worship of these diversified foreigners. I was like a spectator in a 
theatre, hearing the praises of a great author who was also my 
friend; and although I never saw^, as John Russell Young did, 
two hundred thousand beardless, almond-eyed Chinese, looking at 
Grant with stupefied silence, I saw quite as significant a sight when 
royal persons deemed it no loss of prestige to treat him as an equal. 
How would these titled rulers and ancient governments have treated 
such a general ? How they did treat Napoleon, Marlborough, 
Wellington, Nelson, and Yon Moltke, let history relate. No 
matter how obscure their origin or how low their original estate, 
successful service in battle ennobled them through the centuries ; 
and as this truth pressed itself on the European brain in the per- 
son of the plain, untitled American soldier who had left the emol- 
ument of place and the honors of the Presidency after saving the 
greatest nation in the world, you can see what a fertile text it was 
to prince and peasant, and how deeply it sunk into and grew in 
the minds and hearts of the American people across the ocean. 

Believe me, when I say I am not making an appeal for Grant . 
as the next President. That would be mere supererogation. If 
he wants it he can take it. These manifestations abroad, re- 
echoed by new welcomes at home, mean more than political 
fidelity. They are the language of all the races of men, full 
of the hope of a long rule of liberty. Sinister philoso- 
phy defines them to be a declaration for a Cresarian dynasty; 
but let us remember how this same philosophy predicted that 
slavery would be perpetual because it was divine; that emancipa- 
tion would be brief because it was not constitutional ; that our 
national debt would be national death ; and that financial embar- 
rassment would leave us without character or credit. I am of those 



10 

who believe that four years more of the Presidency would not add 
one cubit to the stature of General Grant ; but I believe if he is 
needed he will come to the fore, and that he will take up the lines 
where he left them in March, 1876, not as the Republican candi- 
date only, but as the choice of the whole American people. 




Vol. 1.— No. 44. 
Single Copies, 



SEPTEMBER 13, 1879. 



$5 A Year, in Advance. 
10 Cents. 



JOHN V\r. FORNEY, 

EDITOR AND PBOFRlETOIt, 

S. ^W, Cor. SEVENTH and CHESTNUT, 

PHIL.ADEI.PHIA, PA. 



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